Burien City Manager Mike Martin Arrested For DUI

According to The Seattle Times, Burien City Manager Mike Martin was arrested for a DUI Sunday night (April 19th) after his vehicle left the road and struck a ceramic pot in a yard in the 12600 block of 14th Avenue South in Burien (Google street view map below).

Apparently Martin was found outside his car, “leaning forward and swaying side to side,” according to King County Sheriff’s records. His breath allegedly smelled strongly of alcohol, his speech was slurred and he admitted to drinking a couple glasses of wine and two beers.

The article goes on to say that Martin refused to perform both field sobriety tests and Breathalyzer tests, and that he was arrested. Under Washington state law, refusing to take a breath test results in automatic suspension of a driver’s license for at least one year. Martin may challenge the suspension or seek approval for an alcohol-ignition device on his car.

According to the Times, this isn’t Martin’s first run-in with the law â€“ he apparently previously resigned as Chief Administrative Officer for the city of Kent after a 2005 hit-and-run incident.

Martin has been city manager since November 2006, and his yearly salary is $135,180.

We’re working on getting comments from both Martin and other city officials, but the Times goes on to quote Mayor Joan McGilton as saying that his arrest will be discussed at the next city council meeting on Monday night, April 28th, which we will cover.

Comments

I'm surpprised about this. Not that Mr. Martin has a drinking problem, but that he is choosing to stay quiet about it rather than address the problem openly and directly. If he hadn't been drinking, there would have been no reason for him to refuse the sobriety test and the breathalyzer. Also, he has had plenty of time to come forward and make a public statement, such as, "I made a mistake, I admit I have a problem, and I am taking steps to ensure that I don't hurt anyone." I really expected Mr. Martin or someone from the City to get out in front of this. Two days of silence makes me wonder if they plan to hush this up and hope it goes away. I will be very interested in what they say, or what they don't say, at Monday's Council meeting.

Jim, there isn't an Assistant City Manager in Burien at this time. You may know that when Gary Long was the Burien City Manager, we had an Asst. City Manager named David Cline. However, since Mike Martin has been the City Manager there hasn't been an Assistant City Manger. I don't know why there isn't an Asst. City Manager, but it would be a good question to ask the Burien City Councilmembers.

There's probably a simple answer to that question — money. I seem to recall hearing that David Cline is now a full-fledged city administrator or manager or something like that up north — is it Lake Forest Park? As a cost-saving measure they probably didn't fill his position when he left — probably divided the work among other, less costly, positions.